Examining sexology under a communist regime
Although the discipline of sexology was not banned under communism, it was still marginalised. In terms of the socio-historical examinations of sexology, the focus has primarily been on the impact it had in the 19th and early 20th centuries. When it comes to the 21st century, a gap exists regarding how sexology influenced communist societies. The EU-funded SEXOCOM project researched sexology in Czechoslovakia under the communist regime. Following an interdisciplinary approach, the project carried out methodological research along with critical discourse analysis of textual data. Comparisons with and influences of the Western world constituted a large segment of the study as did sexual practices and gender identities. Results were presented at 11 academic conferences, and lectures were also part of the dissemination. The work enables knowledge transfer through insight on gender and sexuality regimes in Eastern Europe. It contributes to filling the gap on an understudied topic while fostering scholarly European dialogue.
Keywords
Sexology, gender, sexuality, Eastern Europe, communism
